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Is the travel and leisure bull market still with us? Last night we got results from Veil Resorts, which owns 42 ski resorts in North America, Europe, and Australia. Well, this was basically an inline quarter. The market wasn't too thrilled, sending the stock down nearly 3% today on what amounted to a pretty good session.
Now, I got a soft spot for Veil because they have a portfolio of some of the best ski resorts on Earth. It's impossible for a competitor to put something together like this. This thing always seems like it should be a great business. We know these places charge a fortune, right? With a captive audience of of guests paying through the nose for lift passes, equipment rentals, ski lessons, lodging, food.
For years and years, the stock was an incredible performer. From the financial crisis bottom in March of 2009 to its all-time high in late 2021, bail rallied from just $15 to $376. That is a nearly a $2,450% gain. But since then, the stock's come down hard. It's never really been able to find its footing.
Now, some of that's not their fault. I mean, most grow stocks did very badly in 2022. The thing is, unlike the others, Veil hasn't bounced back over the past few years. In fact, they had a pretty darn disappointing 2023 to 2024 ski season. Oh, look. Around this time last year, management was blaming that on quote unfavorable conditions end quote, meaning a lack of snow in the Mountain West.
Unfortunately, things got worse this past ski season. Last fall, it started to become clear that season pass sales were floundering. Now, that was in part because the company's been so aggressive with its price increases over the last few years. Then during ski season, Bale had some high-profile operational issues to put it lightly.
For example, there was a nearly two-week strike over ski patrol wages in Park City Mountain in Utah, leading to comically long lift lines during one of the busiest parts of the season with outraged steers chanting, "Pay your employees, pay your employees." In response, the stock got clobbered in the first few months of 2025.
Sell sell. By the time Vale bottom in the post liberation day wash out in April, the stock had fall to about 130. That's the lowest level since the deaths of COVID in March 2020 around that time when the stock was 145. We got a call uh about it here and I said I was getting real interested given how much the stock had come down.
Then last week something happened that made me even more intrigued. Veil Resorts brought in new leadership. Actually, brought in old leadership. Last Tuesday, after the market closed, Vale announced that Kirsten Lynch, who'd served as CEO since the fall of 2021, will be stepping down to be replaced by a familiar face, Rob Katz, her predecessor, who ran the company from 2006 to 2021.
Wow. All right. Basically, Cats served as CEO during the entirety of that house on Pure Revail. The stock peaked less than two weeks after he left that role in late 2021. Hasn't been the same since. So investors were very bullish on this news. Sent the stock up 8% in response, although it's now given back all those gains because of the quarter bail reported last night.
And that makes sense to me. Speaking of the quarter, you knew it wasn't going to be great given that the CEO had just got ousted, right? I mean, it's kind of a tell. Sure enough, the 2024 to 2025 ski season ended pretty darn poorly with a weak April. That said, even with a 3% decline in the number of skiers this season, balance some modest improvements in its financial results with resort revenue up 3% year-to date, driven by a 4% increase in season pass revenue.
Even though the number of skiers was down, they raised prices by 8% ahead of the season. And the people who did come spent more money on ancillary services. As for the headline results, Vale posted inline revenue with a 50cent earnings beat off a $104 basis. Now, it could have been worse. Management tightened their fullear forecast, raising the low end of their earnings guidance and lowering the high end, but uh but the midpoint ended up lower.
The new guidance reflects the weak end of the ski season, which Veil said was partially mitigated by strong cost discipline. Of course, that's not the whole story. With the quarter, Veil gave it it gave its first update on season pass sales for the upcoming ski season. Past product sales uh through May 27th decreased by roughly 1% in units.
Although in dollar terms, they're up 2% year-over-year. Again, this is a this is big. A big price increases making up for slightly lower volume this season. And prices were raised another 7%. Oh my. Now, the context is important here. These season passes went on sale within a week of Liberation Day and the ensuing stock market mini crash that followed.
I'm betting some skiers just held off on buying a pass as that was happening because the more high-end ones can cost over $1,000. As a new old CEO, Robert Katz put it, quote, given elevated levels of macroeconomic volatility that occurred throughout the spring selling period. It is currently unknown what if any impact that had on early past decisionmaking.
Still, analysts and investors seem disappointed by these initial numbers, which is the main reason why the stock just got clobbered today. Interestingly though, maybe not all that surprising given that Catz has remained as executive chairman of Veil Resorts this whole time and uh he's only been back in the CEO role for a week or so.
Management didn't signal any major strategic shifts that were in the offing. That was disconcerting to me. So, where do I come down on this stock after last week's leadership shakeup at last night's conference call? Long story short, I'm still finding this Veil Resorts intriguing down here, but it might take a little while to get the turn to happen.
This remains a truly unique business, something you can't be replicated, and you're getting this opportunity to buy the stock at a fairly significant discount. And it's currently trading at less than 20 times this year's earnings estimates. By historical standards, that makes it pretty darn cheap. But man, it sure feels like Veil needs to do something to get its mojo back.
Maybe they need to cut price or at least very least hold them steady. I like this idea. They put through high singledigit price increases for season pass every year for the past several years, which seems to me very aggressive, especially given the lack of unit sales growth here. Maybe they need to think about some strategic moves.
Do they really need resorts in North America, Europe, and Australia? Do the regional ski resorts in places like Ohio and West Virginia, uh, Pennsylvania belong with the same company that owns Veil and Whistler? You could argue that they really don't belong under the same roof. But the bottom line, I think Veil Resorts has potential here.
Even if I'm not willing to pound the table on this one, if you want to bet on a comeback, I think you put on a small position now in recognition of just how cheap the stocks gotten. But I'd like to see more of a turn in the business before truly sticking my neck out for veil. And Mr. Cats, when you're ready, you're more than welcome to come right here on the show and tell us more about your plans to get the business back on track.
The money is back after the break. Coming up, could a stealth aerospace and defense play be the right fit for your portfolio? Kramer is putting the name on your radar .
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